Archive for September, 2014

I thought the two incidents with Maya being attacked by other dogs were isolated incidents. But it almost happened again and with a different dog! Actually, I should say dogs because there were two. Poor Maya. This time, though, I think I handled it much better for her sake.

The first time Maya was attacked, I froze. I didn’t know what to do. Luckily, the owner came and grabbed her dog and Maya wasn’t injured. The second time was too hectic because I was trying to deal with Pierson. It didn’t occur to me that the dog would turn around and attack Maya when Pierson was out of the picture.

But this third time, everything worked out great. I actually kept the two dogs from reaching her. Here’s what I did:

When I saw the two dogs coming, I stepped in front of Maya to protect her. When the two dogs got close, I stomped my foot and yelled “No!” They slowed down but were still approaching so I hunched down as if I were going to come at them and stamped my foot and yelled again. This time, they stopped. A couple more times and they backed off.

Where was their owner? She was outside with them and was yelling her head off for them to come back. They did not listen to her. I’m not surprised. I doubt Pierson would have either if the situation were reversed.

Last time, I excused the owners of the other dogs. This time, though, it was pure negligence on the owner’s part. She purposely let her dogs outside off a leash and without an enclosure. I felt like I should have said something to her, but as soon as those dogs backed off I got the heck out of there.

My husband cares for our dogs, but he doesn’t love them like I do. The only dogs he ever had were outside guard dogs. So Sephi and Maya were a unique experience for him. When we got married, it took some time for him to get used to the dogs living in the house with us. The dogs are still not allowed on the furniture, but he no longer gets grossed out when he accidentally eats a dog hair or if there is a fur dust bunny floating around on the floor. Having Maya and Pierson indoors is second nature to him now. However, he still doesn’t interact with them as much as I do. But I have caught him playing with or petting them every now and then. Maya and Pierson are really making progress with him, don’t you think? 🙂

Caught in the act! Whatever cuteness Maya and Pierson exhibited this morning caused my husband to bend down and give Maya and Pierson an unexpected belly rub.

This is part of the Caring for Critters Round Robin hosted by Jodi with Heart Like a Dog. Each day of the month, a different pet blogger shares their experience in dealing with a particular health issue. I am following Jen with Dogthusiast.com with various health issues that I’ve encountered with my dogs over the years.

It’s difficult to tell in this photo, but Cassie had a permanently dry nose due to her bout with distemper when she was young.

Cassie’s Distemper
Cassie got distemper when she was about two years old and I was eleven. The vet gave us some medicine and we kept her in the garage away from our other dogs. I went in to see her every day after school and even set up my own little chair so I could stay in there with her. (My mom wouldn’t let me sleep in there overnight, though.) The distemper caused Cassie to lose her leg muscles. My mother showed me how to help her get her strength back so Cassie could walk again. I don’t know how much of this my mother did when I was at school, but I worked with Cassie every chance I got. She eventually pulled through. The disease left her with a permanently dry nose and gooey eyes, but she lived as a normal happy dog to the age of thirteen.

Smokey loved to travel.

Smokey’s Blistered Feet
One day the gate didn’t close properly when my ex (then my husband) headed out in his truck. Smokey took off after him. It was at least a quarter mile, possibly more, before he noticed Smokey chasing him… and keeping up. He pulled over and Smokey slowed down to a painful limp. The hard fast run on pavement blistered Smokey’s feet very badly. There wasn’t much a vet could do other than clean his feet and give him some antibiotic ointment. So for the next few days I did my best to keep Smokey from having to walk, kept his feet clean, put medicine on, and put bandages on whenever I needed to take him out for potty. Smokey healed quickly.

Sheba is the Rottweiler mix pup on the right. When she was an even smaller pup, she had Parvo and her mange was much worse. Loving care enabled her to overcome both.

Sheba’s Parvo
Sheba was either dumped in front of my house or she found her way there on her own and decided to stay. I took her in only to find she had parvo and mange. My dogs had their vaccinations against parvo, but I still kept Sheba separated from them. Sheba was given medicines and special food until the vet gave her the clear on the parvo. She still had mange but it wasn’t contagious and so she became a permanent member of the family. A healthy diet eventually cleared up her mange.

Sephi developed hypothyroidism when she was about 6 or 7 years old.

Sephi’s Hypothyroidism
I’ve written about Sephi’s hypothyroidism before. The short version of the story is this – Sephi came up with a skin condition where red bald spots appeared on her stomach and a few other places. The vet gave her medicine and it didn’t work. The vet then sent me to a doggie dermatologist and he gave Sephi a more powerful medicine that ended up harming her liver. She spent the night at the vet with an iv and the liver problem cleared up, but the skin condition didn’t. I took her to a different vet and they suggested hypothyroidism. Sure enough, the test results were positive. Sephi was given a prescription that was very inexpensive compared to all the other medicines that she had been prescribed, and her skin cleared up within a week.

Pierson has canine epilepsy and suffers from a short seizure every few months or so.

Pierson’s Canine Epilepsy
Pierson had his first seizure on his first Gotcha Day, which I wrote about on this blog on January 12th, 2013. He’s had a few more since then, a total of 6 I think it is now, with no known cause. Luckily, these episodes are short and he recovers very quickly. The vet says they are not bad enough to require medication. Medication can have a lot of side effects, and some of those side effects won’t be noticeable to us because dogs are good at hiding their discomforts. Pierson’s most recent seizure was a few days ago at 4:00am on September 12th. It was short, as usual. And as usual, he was back to his silly-boy self within moments afterwards. There isn’t much I can do for him when he has these. I simply make sure there is nothing nearby for him to hit and comfort him until it is over.

I used the pet first aid kit from Kurgo for the first time when Maya was injured by another dog.

Maya’s Leg Wound
I recently wrote about Maya being attacked by a dog. That was on August first of this year. The attack left her with a gaping wound on her leg. Luckily, no arteries were hit. A quarter-sized chunk of skin was torn off, but there was very little blood. Maya was given oral antibiotics as well as topical. The first day she was in a lot of pain so I also got her some doggie aspirin from Petco. It helped. She was her normal energetic self the next day. I washed her wound twice a day every day for a couple of weeks and made her wear a cone so she couldn’t lick her wound. She still has a scar, but her wound has healed very nicely.

There are so many other situations to write about. Becky Anne was hit by a car once and lost her tail. She also jumped off a cliff once! Then there was Huckleberry who jumped out of our car window to chase some cows. Both survived without major injuries, thank goodness. Our pets sure do give us some experiences, both fun and difficult. I could certainly do without the drama, but I could never do without my dogs.

Learn about more pet health care experiences by checking out Peggy’s blog, The Writer’s Dog. Peggy’s topic is Caring for Super Seniors.

Pierson received the Rein Coat some time back in order to help with his leash reactive behavior. (See June 26, 2014 post.) I haven’t really had a chance to try it yet because I don’t want to make him wear a coat when it is 80-90 degrees out. But it has been cool lately, so both him and Maya got to try it out. We didn’t encounter any dogs on our walk, so I don’t know yet if it helps with leash reaction. But it really helped keep them from pulling my arm off on the walk!

Guess who came by for a visit on her way to Chicago? And guess who got a bunch of yummy treats from Jones Natural Chews?

Does Pierson have a Flea or does a Flea have Pierson?

If you think these photos are pawsome, go visit the Wordless Wednesday blog hop below:

Pierson was nervous on his first day at his new home. He wasn’t quite sure yet what to think of me and my husband or Maya.

I was talking to someone about my dog Pierson the other day (when do I not talk about my dogs?), about how he was rescued and about how shy he can sometimes be around strangers. Their first reaction to his shyness was to say he had probably been mistreated by his prior family. My immediate response was to say this is not necessarily true and here’s why.

SHY BUT NOT FEARFUL
Pierson is wary and shy, but he is not fearful. He darts out of the way of a fast hand movement or if someone bends over him. But this is a natural reaction for many dogs. He doesn’t snap or growl in reaction. He simply takes a few steps back.

Pierson was a bit shy around my dad at first. But he warmed up to him after a few treats.

BREED BEHAVIOR
Pierson is most likely part Border Collie and part Australian Shepherd. Both these breeds are very high alert dogs. They were bred to guard flocks and so they tend to be naturally wary of strange things, including strange people. Pierson tends to warm up to a person better if I or my husband is there and if the other person lets Pierson check them out first on his own terms.

LACK OF SOCIALIZATION
I got Pierson when he was probably a year old so I have no idea how well he was socialized. He was very shy when we first got him. I have been doing my best to introduce him to new people and new things. And as such, he tends to warm up to new people much quicker than in the past. There are still occasions when he decides to be shy. Generally it is around small children since he doesn’t get the opportunity to be around children much.

Pierson looks on as my niece and nephew, my brother-in-law, and my husband play Hungry Hungry Hippos. He was wary of the little ones but not fearful. My sister has done a good job of teaching her kids how to approach dogs and to leave them alone if they don’t want to be bothered.

MISTREATED
A dog very well could be shy due to mistreatment. If Pierson had been mistreated, however, I would expect his reaction to be a lot more severe. I’d expect tail tucking, ears going back, eyes dilating, growling, or cowering. He occasionally growls, but it is usually when a person tries to be too overly friendly with him. He’s not a Labrador. You can’t just go up to him and try to put your arms around him! (Actually one shouldn’t do this to any dog regardless of breed, but you get my point.)

I honestly don’t know whether Pierson had been purposely abandoned in the park I found him in or if he had wandered off from his family and found his own way to the park. I have no idea if he was loved or if he was unwanted. Either way, I very much doubt he was abused. For Pierson, I think the most likely explanation for his shyness is his breed mix. Lack of socialization is probably a factor too, but I think it is possible for certain dogs to have a shyness tendency regardless of proper socialization.

Do you have a shy dog? Why do you think he or she is shy? What do you tell people when they suggest your dog might have been mistreated?

Despite the above photo caption, Maya was very busy on Labor Day. She had an absolutely great day at Gray’s Lake here in Des Moines. Maya had so much fun that she completely exhausted herself. By the way, she is wearing her Outward Hound dog life jacket because I worry that she will swim out too far or hide how tired she is and keep swimming.

We went with some friends who have a cute little Dachshund named Honey.

For more fabulously fun photos of dogs and other pets, click the link below for the Wordless Wednesday blog hop.